


This Thing of Darkness

by MassiveSpaceWren, Mizzy



Category: X-Factor (Comics)
Genre: Body Dysphoria, Body Horror, Captain America/Iron Man Reverse Big Bang 2016, Dysphoria, Explosions, Gen, M/M, Mass Death, Memory Loss, Minor Character Death, Mutants, Past Character Death, Past Relationship(s), Pre-Slash, Presumed Dead, Relatively Open Ending, Resurrection, Reverse Big Bang Challenge, Species Dysphoria, Temporary Character Death, Torture, X-Factor #231
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-22
Updated: 2016-05-22
Packaged: 2018-06-10 02:37:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 18,525
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6935377
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MassiveSpaceWren/pseuds/MassiveSpaceWren, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mizzy/pseuds/Mizzy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>X-Factor #231 AU.</p><p>It's been five years since it happened, but Deathlok has spent every day since M-Day wishing he was less human, so going undercover as a human in order to find more humans to slaughter…? It's tough, but Deathlok agrees to do it. The target is Pandora, a base that Deathlok thought was just a rumor, the biggest undercover human resistance camp in the world.</p><p>The mission turns out to be tougher than Deathlok expects, though, because the leader of the ragtag resistance camp is Tony Stark. Tony, who always has more than one ace up his sleeve. Tony, who Deathlok used to know. Tony, who refuses to call him anything but by his disgusting human name: <i>Steve.</i></p>
            </blockquote>





	This Thing of Darkness

**Author's Note:**

> ♥ Written for the Captain America/Iron Man Reverse Big Bang, 2016. Art by MassiveSpaceWren, Fic by Mizzy. ♥
> 
>  **Warnings:** major body dysphoria (a cyborg who wants to be less human), presumed dead characters, actually dead major characters that happened pre-story canon (lots of Avengers, some major ones, all died in M-Day), comic book science. Canonical mass genocide (billions of dead humans.) Coulson bashing (he's a mutant and it turned him into a jerk? IDK.) Generally a depressing concept so I added a cute girl to the story because ?????? (well, mostly because Hope saved the day in 616 tbh.)
> 
>  **Thank you:** Thank you to C for the last-minute beta save, and Wren for having it more together than I ever will.
> 
>  **The art!**  
>  THE ART, GOSH, THE ART IS SO PRETTY and my artist is amazing and I wish I'd had it more together during this process but when am I ever anything but a hot mess when it comes to big bangs. Anyway, the art post is [here](http://stonypathoffandom.tumblr.com/post/144772022188/the-art-for-cap-im-reverse-big-bang-2016-i-am-so) and you should go reblog it a thousand-million times if your eyeballs approve of it. Which they will, I'm pretty sure.
> 
>  **A brief background on X-Factor 231 if you're thinking "oh I haven't read it so I can't read this fic":**  
>  X-Factor 231 gave us a very brief glimpse into a world where Wanda said "No more humans" instead of "No more mutants". The only things we really learned in the comic were that Tony is a) drinking again, and b) leading a human resistance against the mutant/cyborg armies trying to wipe out all humans. Also, Steve is a 75% cyborg human-hating hunter calling himself Deathlok.
> 
> The rest of the world-building in this fic is my own presumptions based on these facts alongside a dose of what happened in 616 but altered around a bit because fanfic. 
> 
> ##

 

"We're getting closer," Longshot hisses, curling his three-fingered hand over his face to shield his eyes as he looks over the rocky landscape and the large cliffs dropping down to more dustland beyond. He bends on one knee, and his usual star flashes out as his fingers graze the ground. "He definitely came by here, but he's rabbiting. He knows who's following him. Buddy's playing hard to get." He grins. "I like it when they do that."

"I wish one of these traitors would run in a straight line, just one, that's all I ask," Toad sighs. "But he has to be a goddamned _part_ -breed." He side-eyes Deathlok. Deathlok glances at him coolly, but Toad doesn't look perturbed. "A part-breed _precog_. Sometimes I think psychics are even worse than the humans."

"Thanks," Blindfold says, telekinetically throwing a rock at Toad with amazing accuracy for an apparently blind woman; Toad bats it aside with his tongue, and wrinkles his nose at the taste.

"Don't let the Lady hear you say that," Longshot warns.

"She hears everything," Toad says, scratching at his belly. "And as I haven't yet had my intestines removed orally, I think it means the Lady's got more to worry about then little ol' disgusting me." He eats a nearby newt in punctuation. Deathlok's brain is still 98% human, an annoying fact that rears its ugly head when the animal part of his brain recoils at Toad's action.

They say when the mutant gene activates, it finds something about you that's strong and latches on. Deathlok wonders what vile thing Toad was thinking of when his mutant gene activated to become something so disgusting.

"Her worries and attentions focus more every week," Longshot murmurs. "I'd be careful if I were you." He looks worried himself for a moment, but the emotion blanks away. Emotions are too human to show. Longshot's got every right to be nervous; Lady M's definition of what constitutes "no more humans" is narrowing every single day. Longshot didn't vocally identify as a mutant until M-Day, but if the Lady eventually turns on the mutants without a history of constant mutant pride, Deathlok will be dead long before then. Deathlok is over 75% cyborg now, with his paltry less-than-quarter  of humanity clearly overshadowed by the superior robotic systems, but even that little amount of humanity is too much for some people.

"He's down there," Blindfold says, pointing easily down the cliff-face. "I'm sensing somewhere damp, something cold on my face. A cave, perhaps. It's too far above sea level for him to have doubled back up here."

"Down we go," Longshot says, gesturing at the drop.

"Well, Trask can't run for long," Toad says, gracefully dropping down a twenty-foot drop. Blindfold spreads her arms to hover down. Longshot leaps, extending one of his luck-bending fields and landing gracefully. Deathlok grits his teeth and turns to make the climb down; he'll make up the distance easily once he's on the ground, but they won't slow down so he can keep up. They're wary of the humanness left in him. They shouldn't be. Deathlok hates it and he'd tear it out in a heartbeat if he knew he could survive without it.

By the time he climbs down the cliff and finds his unit, they're already crouched around a long dark sinister-looking tunnel, all three of them standing back and holding their noses. Deathlok stalks in a little closer. His olfactory senses are muted by Computer's programming; his human side might _try_ to get him to perceive his senses, but Computer can shut it off if he asks for it. He sends the request.

"Definitely let the Part do it," Toad says, gesturing.

Deathlok curls his lip. _Ignore,_ Computer whispers, but nothing Computer says ever feels like an order, just a suggestion, and Deathlok's mind is, unfortunately, louder. Stronger. Every action is a struggle when it shouldn't be. _Part_ is probably right. He grits his teeth. _Ignore_. He uses the loudest voice in his head, and it seems to work. The burning feeling at the back of his brain that he gets when someone calls him _Part_ mutes a little.

The Lady might want the world to be run by mutants, but mutants are more human than Deathlok right now, because the three mutants of Deathlok's unit are cowardly clamping their hands over their mouths and noses. Weak. _Pathetic_.

"I'll be right back," Deathlok sneers.

##

Trask hadn't been a problem in the end, but that was okay: Deathlok liked the chase more than the takedown. He hauled Trask back to headquarters, ignoring the yowling, pinching him by the soft of his neck with his metal fingers and grinning when Trask shouted in pain. Slimy little human-sympathizer deserved everything he got.

Toad and Longshot order him into the shower, Blindfold making a gag about needing some _human_ time, and Deathlok only follows the order because Computer can only mask the smell for so long, and it is repulsive.

Trask had climbed _into_ that sludge and sewerage deliberately. That was where humans belonged.

Deathlok showers quickly, despising the human parts of him that need to be cleaned, and he stands under the jet dryers impatiently, his cybernetic parts needing to be cleaned thoroughly. The blast of the dryers makes his remaining human skin pinken and sting. The pain is good. The pain is a reminder of the disgusting parts of himself that need to be eradicated. Hill said something last month about maybe being able to replace his remaining upper arm with a newer cybernetic model. Deathlok isn't high up the priority chain for amendments, but he hopes he can reach the top of the replacement list soon. 25% human is too much for him. The biological parts of his body are an itch he can't scratch.

"Rogers," Coulson calls from the doorway to the locker room, and Deathlok flinches at the sound of his human name; Coulson's mouth flattens. He obviously doesn't like Deathlok's too-emotional reaction. Why should he like it? It's human. It's too human. _Part,_ he thinks, and it's not Computer thinking that.

Coulson won't call Deathlok by his right name. Coulson doesn't think Parts deserve a non-human name.

"Come with me," Coulson says. His eyes dryly flicker to the exposed skin of Steve's— of _Deathlok's_ right arm. Deathlok seethes. Coulson always has to freaking remind him that he's human. Just because Coulson got mutant powers on M-Day… "Cover yourself first," Coulson adds. "Meet me in detention room four."

Deathlok nods, barely disguising his glare of hatred at Coulson's retreating back.

##

Dressed now, with armor segments covering as much skin as possible, Deathlok strides down the halls and tries to avoid glancing at the reflective metal walls. It takes a lot of concentration not to catch a glimpse of the pink side of his face, the tuft of too-human hair sticking out. He shaves it back as often as he can but it takes too long to navigate the razor between the skullcap of his brain implants. Coulson didn't sound like he would be too pleased if Deathlok made him wait much longer than necessary.

He always avoids reflections when he can. Sometimes when he looks into them he sees someone else's smile. A flash of green. An intrusive thought: _my fault._ Computer pushes all those thoughts away and he is grateful.

When Deathlok gets to detention room four he has to work not to get startled. Because on the other side of the two-way glass is En Sabah Nur, his broad blue back facing the glass, one of his arms narrowed and shaped into a wicked hooked blade. He used to be named Apocalypse, but the Lady let him reclaim an older name when he argued that M-Day had caused his ultimate quest to be successful.Deathlok knows all about how claiming a new name can push aside the weakness in your past, make you stronger and better. Steve Rogers was a weakling, but Deathlok is a _machine_.

M-Day was successful at making the world pro-mutant, but not perfect, as humans still keep trying to cause terror and mayhem, and Deathlok's happy to help Nur and Lady in their campaign to erase humanity and wipe the humans off the face of the planet. Still, Nur only turns up in person when something big is going down, and as a _Part,_ Deathlok tends to be kept back. He's only ever seen Nurfrom a distance.

Being this close to him is almost _terrifying_. But that's a human emotion. Deathlok clamps down on it and steps into Coulson's line of sight.

"Rogers," Coulson says, with a smirk that says clearly how much he knows Deathlok hates it. "Why don't you relax a while and enjoy the show?"

"My idea of relaxing is pounding a human's face in," Deathlok mutters.

"You're gonna get that vicariously," Coulson says, and nods at the glass. Deathlok turns his gaze to the glass, hating that one of his eyes is still human. A dual cybernetic ocular implant would mean he could look through Nur's ever-changing mass to the target behind him; his single ocular implant only allows him to measure temperature.

Nur's renown for torture is wide. Deathlok hopes that the humans out there whisper the stories to each other. Nur is the human's bogeyman.

When Nur finally steps aside, Deathlok inhales too fast and Coulson grins at him, almost triumphant. Every slip of Deathlok's humanity seems to be a small victory for him.

Deathlok can't help it. Nur's torture victim is mostly cyborg. Nur's victim is a _Part._

The _Part_ is less human than Deathlok is—just the curve of a nose and half of a smile and part of the torso, Deathlok thinks. Nur has the hooked-blade limb buried in the cyborg's guts and _huh_? Why would he even need to do that? The cyborg clearly has a full lower-body replacement. And yet, the cyborg is screaming, howling in pain. How is that even possible?

"It got past all our scans," Coulson says, gesturing irritably at the glass. "All our psychics. Damn thing registers as 98 per cent pure."

Pure meaning _cyborg_. "The sensors are broken then," Deathlok says.

"You'd think. No. Keep watching." Coulson leans in. "I like this part."

Deathlok shoots him a covert confused look, but Coulson's staring at the glass as Nur grows an extra limb just to grab something from the table. A cattle prod? Deathlok tilts his head, and Nur shoves the prod into the _Part_ 's neck, and there's more screaming, and—

"What is that?" Deathlok asks, eyes tracking the black mass that suddenly leaps up from the _Part_ , flailing around in a mass of energy, and Deathlok can see Bolt in the back, holding up his palms, using his electricity to keep the black mass contained around the _Part_ — the _Part_ that's _not_ a _Part_ at all. Underneath the writhing black mass, the _Part_ is _all human_. Deathlok gags at the sight. "It's human," he breathes. "And—"

"Something else," Coulson says. "Definitely something else." He side-eyes Deathlok. "And we think we can control it."

Deathlok blinks a couple of times. "Is it a new… Iron Legion?" He squints. The writhing mass settles down, reforming as the fake cyborg veneer around the human, making it look like a _Part_ again. It doesn't look like one of Stark's annoying armors. "It looks too biological for that."

"It's something else," Coulson says. "We're implanting it now with a control device. We've done some scans and it's registering as extra-terrestrial."

Deathlok stares. "Like the Phoenix force?"

Coulson flinches at that. No one likes the reminder that they nearly had the power of the Phoenix and it _got away_. "Something more alien," he says. "Watch. We tried this a couple of times, but I think this is going to be the right level of control that we need."

"Where did you find it?" Deathlok asks, as Cyber and Forge come out of the shadows of the cell, moving forward to push some sort of device into the fake- _Part_ 's armor. The black mass starts flailing again and the two mutants leap back, letting Nur and Bolt contain it again with bursts of electricity.

"Out in the sands," Coulson says. "Trying to meld in with a regular patrol. Nearly succeeded in getting into the building, too. It's a tight disguise. I hesitate to admit it, but it was just bad luck that got it caught. I don't want to think about the damage it could have done had it gotten inside unnoticed."

 _Bad luck doesn’t exist,_ Computer crackles in Deathlok's processors. _Only randomness is real._

"Let's hope it's alone," Deathlok says. "If the humans have more of them—"

"We know what to look for now," Coulson says. "Hill's out adding it to all the scanners now."

Deathlok nods. "So what's this got to do with me?"

"Just wait," Coulson says.

"It's stabilizing," Cyber calls through. "Attempting test _now._ "

Deathlok stares as the _Part_ strapped to the torture gurney flails, covering in the writhing black mass.

"We're losing the heartbeat," Cyber calls. "Get Richards in here, stat."

There's a flurry of movement, Dr. Richards coming into the room, extending one of his stretching limbs to push something into the _Part_ 's neck and then he yanks his long arm backwards, whip fast, in time for the black mass to settle around the _Part_ and Deathlok stares and stares.

Because it's somehow _Deathlok_ that is now lying on the slab, even though Deathlok himself is still on the safe side of the glass. Deathlok flinches at the mirror image of himself lying on Nur's torture rack. He looks so _human_. His face is peering through the semi-mask of metal covering his left cheek, and he looks vulnerable, so much more vulnerable than Deathlok ever wants to be.

"How?" Deathlok barks out.

Coulson's grinning, viciously, violently. "We can make it look like anyone, any _thing_. I imagine if we left a human out bleeding in the desert, Tony Stark wouldn't be able to help himself. He'd rescue any poor human."

Deathlok forces himself to stare at the replica of himself, at the remnants of blond hair tufting out of the metal cap, and the roving blue eyes, scanning around the contents of the torture room, clearly distressed. If he looks away like he wants to, Coulson will judge him harshly. It's hard to look. Nur's blade-like limb is still skewered through the prisoner's bowels.

"What's that got to do with me?" Deathlok says.

Coulson's grin widens. "We've narrowed down the location of Pandora. You're going to find out exactly where it is for us."

##

The thing is, Pandora's a legend. It's a myth. Something the humans came up with to help them sleep at night. A secret base that's managed to hide away from the approximately one and a half billion mutants covering the planet? Ridiculous. There's no way a secret that large could have stayed hidden for so long.

Computer runs through the file Coulson downloaded into Deathlok's core again. The results are unmistakable. Pandora. It's a rumor. It's a legend. Tony Stark's base camp. The main hub of the human resistance. If it's real, finding it and tearing it down would mean the smaller resistance camps would fall like dominoes.

Dr. Richards seems to be the lead on setting Deathlok up with the— oh, but Deathlok doesn't know what to call it. Computer comes back silent when he pings a request. There's no term. Disguise, Deathlok decides. Dr. Richards is setting him up with the disguise. Deathlok's bound to a table like Nur's torture slab. It might go wrong. Maybe going offline will be a blessing. Maybe it was better for an accident to take him, and not wait and wait for the Lady to decide she wants to eradicate the Parts herself.

Deathlok remembers M-day. He remembers how some of the humans screamed as they gained mutant powers. He remembers how some of the humans just snuffed out, gone. Like flipping a switch to the off position.

He remembers a friend—

 _No,_ Computer says. _Not now. Focus._

"You look nervous," Coulson says from the corner. A taunt.

Deathlok gives his superior his best withering glance. "It's a risky play, that's all," Deathlok says."What if this tech falls back into enemy hands?"

Coulson shrugs. "It's worth it." He paces along the wall, watching, always watching. "Retrieve image alpha-four-six-November from your databank."

Deathlok complies. It's a full body video of a man about his height, with dark hairs and dark eyes. He's competently taking out a room of men in suits before stealing a file and fleeing out of a room.

"This is your cover," Coulson says. "You'll be going in as Grant Ward. He's a human who didn't survive M-Day, but that never made it to any records."

"What is on his records?"

"SHIELD agent, mostly shadow missions," Coulson says. "Scant information about his early years, documented lack of a sense of humor, so you'll do fine."

Deathlok nods with a blink, because Richards lowers a metal loop around his head, keeping him still during the procedure.

"This may sting a little," Richards says, whisper-soft. Deathlok resents not getting the addition that would let him switch off his pain receptors entirely.

"What's the plan for deployment?" His lip curls. "I doubt even the humans would believe I just conveniently managed to make it that near to their base undiscovered."

Coulson's grin somehow widens. Perhaps he's been getting additions of his own. "Oh, I don't think there'll be any problem with that, Rogers."

This time, Deathlok does flinch at the sound of his name, but it's probably mostly from the electricity suddenly coursing through his body from Cyber and Forge.

##

"Vision almighty, looking at you is like looking at a squirming rat," Toad says.

Deathlok grits his teeth and keeps walking.

"Like I vomited uncooked liver and it just got up and started walking," Toad continues. He's chewing something idly, something Deathlok doesn't want to identify. "And you smell like that too."

"You talk more than a human," Deathlok hisses. He glances briefly down at himself and that's a mistake. He looks so _human_ that he's constantly having to sit on the urge to rip himself apart. Even though he looks human, his cyborg parts lurk beneath the façade. He could rip his human bits out of him in minutes. Alas, he's of no use to anyone if he's dead.

"Look here, Part," Toad says, spitting out the contents of his mouth. Deathlok tries not to squirm as whatever it is tries to move. "You might _look_ like a regular person for once in your damned little jigsaw life, but get this straight—mutants are superior in every way to humans. Each and every single way. And one of the things mutants have always been better at than humans is _communicating._ Any good words that you think came out of the human's pathetic reign on this planet were probably written by a mutant. So can it. Just because you look like a piece of shit doesn't mean you gotta start acting like one. Now stand there and let me hit you."

Deathlok turns in surprise.

"Maybe you could try and fight back a little," Toad says. "Gotta make it look good."

"I think I'll pass," Deathlok manages, his mouth already dry, because even if he passes out quickly, Toad won't stop. He's seen it before. He's not scared. It's just the humanity left inside of him making him feel weak. "You're not one of the heavy hitters. To take me down you'll need all the help you can get."

He probably shouldn't bait Toad, because he'll pay for it later, but he enjoys the way Toad's mouth curls at the taunt. A voice inside his head says _close your eyes_ , but Deathlok ignores it and keeps his eyes wide open. Even as he hits the dirt and Toad makes him swallow half a mouthful of it. Even as the pain washes over him again, _again._ He keeps his eyes wide open right until the blackness overtakes him and the pounding in his head drifts away to a thankful silence.

##

In the darkness, he dreams.

They say the dreams will never go away, even with all the implants the world has to offer.

In Deathlok's dreams, there's someone smiling at him. Bittersweet. Regretful. Accepting.

In Deathlok's dreams, he's shouting at them. Change. Turn. You'll be safe. Why won't you save yourself? Why wouldn't you save yourself?

The smile disintegrates and Deathlok's left alone.

##

He doesn't want to wake up. Someone's fussing around him. Deathlok warily opens one eye. There's a medic of some sort hovering around him, clad in a white lab coat smeared with someone's blood. Probably his. Toad did a number on him out in the desert.

"You're lucky we found you," the medic says, swabbing a damp cloth along Deathlok's forehead.

Enough of Deathlok's human skin was torn open in Toad's vicious attack to mean when she pulls the cloth away, it's caked with blood and dirt. Deathlok wonders how he must look to her. Weak. Pathetic. _Human._ "We've run a scan and none of your bones were broken, thank goodness." She smiles at him, her mouth moving slowly into a wavering line. "You're safe now, Mr.—?"

"Ward," a voice says from the doorway. The voice sounds familiar. Deathlok forces himself to move slowly, sluggishly, and it's not as much an act as he wants it to be, because his head is _pounding._ Toad didn't have to hit him so hard. Toad didn't have to enjoy it so much.Deathlok finishes turning his face and is greeted by the sight of Tony Stark.

Tony Stark, in the flesh, and not in an Iron Man suit, although that as a sight is not unfamiliar. Deathlok's pounded a great number of Tony's Iron Legion into the ground. He's sad that Tony operates them all remotely. It's a while since Deathlok last saw Tony, sipping alcohol in an apartment with a mutant that was supposed to be dead. He's smaller than he used to be. Deathlok has to fight not to clench his fists. A leaner Tony means he's not been looking after himself. A leaner Tony is an easier Tony to kill.

But he's not been assigned to kill Tony Stark. Well, it's on his to-do list. He's been assigned to find out more about Pandora, to find out how to take it down from the inside out. Tony's further down Deathlok's priority list. He's a full stop at the end of it, and it's going to be satisfying carrying out that death sentence.

"His name's Grant Ward, Jane," Tony says. "He was in SHIELD. Our records say he was active before M-Day but we've never found any remnant of him since."

"I was on a mission in Kosovo," Deathlok says. "We were in a bunker when the— when M-Day happened. We think now it must have shielded us, but when we went outside—"

The medic's face, _Jane_ 's face, wrenches into a sad expression. "Same for me," Jane says. "Well, I was at CERN, and the collider was active, and we think—"

"Mr. Ward's been through enough, Ms. Foster," Tony says. "I need to get him signed in and set up with a bunk."

"Maybe you can let us know where that bunker is," Jane says. "We've been collecting data on potential locations to set up satellite camps. If there are more places resistant to Maximoff's powers—"

"Ms. Foster," Tony says again, sounding strained. She stops talking and flusters.

"Come find me if you're feeling dizzy," she tells Deathlok. "And I know you're probably wanting to rest, but try and eat something first. Adjusting to the pressure in Pandora can be difficult for someone who's been above ground for a while."

 _Above ground,_ Deathlok thinks victoriously. _Ha._

"Follow me," Tony says to Deathlok, and starts moving before checking to see if Deathlok is following him.

It's weird walking behind Tony Stark as Tony leads him out, giving Deathlok the first good look at the base he's had. Normally Deathlok is running after Stark at full speed, trying to kill him.

Deathlok feels groggy still. He regained consciousness in some sort of flying vehicle, but he passed out again and woke up in some sort of small infirmary, with the woman he knows now as Jane Foster running a scan over his body. Deathlok had lain as still as possible while she ran the scans, hoping the jamming signal he was equipped with would give her equipment felonious information and register him as an entirely uninjured human. He was ready to kill Jane Foster had it not worked, but the deception held steady; Dr. Richards' work was always entirely sublime. It's not the first time Deathlok was happy when the Lady decreed that the Fantastic Four's abilities made them count as not-human and it probably won't be the last.

Tony's quiet for a while and Deathlok drinks in the environment around him, quietly counting the number of guards and the location of doors and corridors as they move.

"I was in space," Tony says.

Deathlok startles. Behind Tony, there's a long burnished wall of metal, and Deathlok catches his reflection in it as they walk past. It's not his face but it's enough to make him feel cold right down to his toes, which are also still 80% human. "Uh," Deathlok says, because the conversation starter is not anything close to what he was expecting, "do you mean recently?"

Tony barks out a short laugh and side-glances at him. "When M-Day happened. I was visiting with some friends."

"The Guardians of the Galaxy," Deathlok surmises.

Tony shoots him a hard look and Deathlok panics. His left hand tenses, the most shielded from Tony's sight. They've passed too many guards for Deathlok to get out of here, but if he has to fight, he's going to finally take Tony down with him. "It's difficult to remember my antics were famous, once upon a time," Tony says, after a pause. "I watched it all happen from up there. They're the reason I survived. If I was on Earth, I don't know what would have happened. I'm happy I survived. We're all survivors, Mr. Grant. And together, I think we can bring humanity back from the brink."

Deathlok wonders about it, whether Tony would have been one of the 10% of humans who straight-up survived, or one of the 20% who turned into mutants, or one of the 70% that disappeared into nothing. Deathlok had straight-up survived, maybe because of the super soldier serum. Maybe despite it. He survived M-Day as a human, and when the Lady came for him, she forgave him. She made him a Part. It's better than nothing because it's better than being pure human.

Tony Stark continues to walk like he's unaware of how unlucky he is. He chats about the Iron Legion's mission, scouring the planet for surviving humans, bringing them all back together to bring down the wicked Wanda Maximoff. Deathlok wonders how the Lady would respond to hearing them talk about her like she's the villain of every nightmare ever dreamt. She'd probably smile widely before flaying the skin from their bones.

"This is my laboratory," Tony says, leading Deathlok into a large round room. It's dark, not many lights, and Deathlok squints, trying to adjust his vision, disappointed again that he doesn't have the dual-ocular cybernetic implants, because his single-ocular implant only gives him a hazy thermal map. "And I'm sorry, but you're probably going to be staying here for a while."

Deathlok turns, curious, but Tony's hand is outstretched, a partial Iron Man repulsor glove on his palm. This time he closes his eyes.

##

When Deathlok wakes up, it is not in some sort of plane, nor is it to Jane Foster's pleasing but too-human face.

He's in a small white room. There is a pulsing energy barrier across the large open doorway. Deathlok is on one side, and Tony Stark is on the other. Tony's alone in a large circular lab. Well, he's aloneapart from the large glass chamber he's standing beside. Inside the glass something dark moves and shifts like three-dimensional oil slick. That's when Deathlok looks down at his arm and sees it — the glimmer of metal.

His disguise is gone.

"Sorry about that," Tony says. He doesn't turn around from where he's inputting something into a tablet. "Couldn't give you any longer to look around. We're on a deadline. I'm surprised they didn't bug you, but they know I would have found a tracker, I suppose."

Deathlok narrows his eyes and runs straight for Tony at full speed. Tony doesn't move. He doesn't have to. Pain washes right through Deathlok as he hits the energy barrier and slams backwards, hitting the ground hard. His vision blurs a little as he scowls at Tony through the barrier. It's clear enough to see how big Tony's lab is. It's a mixture of high-tech equipment and jury-rigged machinery.

The chamber holding Venom seems more to the high-tech side of the equation.

"Everything was a trap," Tony says. "Sorry."

He doesn't sound sorry. Deathlok narrows his eyes, which just somehow makes Tony smile. The smile doesn't reach his eyes. _It used to,_ a voice says. Deathlok flinches and tells that voice to shut up. One day he'll get a good enough brain implant to start to be able to wipe out his old memories, the ones that want Tony to lower the barrier so that they can—

 _So you can kill him,_ Computer says, and Deathlok can breathe again.

"We infiltrated you, Stark," Deathlok spits. "We found you."

"We let you find us," Tony says. "We knew they'd have to send a—"

 _Part,_ Computer says.

"—someone like you," Tony finishes, shuffling for a moment. "We've had Venom a while, and I managed to upload… let's call it a virus. It locked Venom down so any tracker they tried to put in it wouldn't work, and also limited its disguise skills so it could only be used on someone like you. And our data says Wanda's not letting many of you continue to wander around."

"The Lady has her reasons," Deathlok says.

Tony's mouth curls. "Wanda Maximoff's _no more humans_ decree made her commit mass genocide. _Billions_ of humans died. Lady isn't the word I'd choose, Steve."

"My name's Deathlok."

Tony's trying his best to maintain a cool façade but he's too human to pull it off. Deathlok can see the twitches and small movements of a man struggling to keep his face under control. He catches Tony's flinch at hearing that. Deathlok vows to continue to reminding Tony for as long as he has to.

"I hoped she would send you," Tony says. "And I was right. She thinks I'm more vulnerable around you."

"She's right," Deathlok says.

Tony exhales an unamused noise that still sounds like a laugh. "Probably. But even had she not sent you, another human like you would have helped answer the question I had, regardless."

Deathlok doesn't know if he likes the sound of being replaceable. He waits, silent. Perhaps Tony will offer the answer without prompting. He remembers Tony liking the sound of his own voice. But Tony seems just as happy to stand there passively watching him, and it's grating. Tony's only looking at the human parts of him. Perhaps hurrying Tony along will speed up the inquisition and make Tony realize he's not going to learn anything from him.

"What question is that?" Deathlok prompts.

Tony stares at him and for a moment Deathlok wonders whether Tony Stark is as human as he says he is, because he's frozen like a Part with too many brain enhancements and a conflicting software issue, a temporary freeze while the processors handle the complex inputs of a human-cyborg body. Then his shoulders curve downwards.

"You," Tony says.

"I don't understand."

Tony smiles and finally looks away from Deathlok, his eyes fixing on a terminal at the far end of his lab. "I wanted to see how much of you was left, underneath the programming and the cybernetics." He looks back at Deathlok, a confusing twist to his mouth that Deathlok cannot parse. "I wanted to see if Steve Rogers still existed."

And oh, the expression is _longing._ It's human. It's _delightful._ Deathlok smiles, rictus wide. "I'm sorry to disappoint you, Tony. Steve Rogers was obliterated _years_ ago."

The longing slides away into something more akin to anger, Tony's brow furrowing, a darkness to his eyes for a fleeting moment that reminds Deathlok of a moment he doesn't want to remember, of a hand outstretched in a crumbling building, of a shield held high over a sputtering circle of light. Deathlok orders the memories to flee and he's left with Tony's face, staring at him.

"You should kill me," Deathlok says, and the simple phrase makes Tony flinch again. It's a practical solution. Deathlok doesn't have much information but he has a little. And it's not like the Lady isn't planning to kill him anyway. A quarter human is still too much human.

"I should?" Tony hums under his breath.

"Because as soon as I get out of here, I'm going to kill you."

Tony's smile is ambiguous. "We'll see," he says, before finally turning away. He flicks a switch as he leaves, plunging Deathlok into darkness.

That suits Deathlok just fine.

##

The cell is unbreakable. At least for Deathlok. He's left to think for long stretches of time. He's come up with so many responses in his head. Computer's databanks are full of them—lines of witty and warm repartee, designed to tug at the part of Tony's psyche that thinks Steve Rogers is still somewhere deep in Deathlok's mind, just waiting to be uncovered. Playing on that vulnerability. Tugging Tony Stark's guard until it falls down enough for him to escape.

He remembers Steve Rogers kissing Tony Stark. It's only a fragment of a memory. A rainy evening, post-mission, and Tony's Iron Man mask is down and his face is between two human hands, and Steve Rogers kissed him then. Tony's mouth was warm in the cool rain. Lightning forked across the sky and Tony laughed in Steve's ear and made a joke about making sparks, and Steve had reached for him again, and pulled him in. Deathlok could do that. Make Tony think there's enough of Steve left. Reach out to kiss him and pull back long enough for Tony to realize Steve's all gone before Deathlok snaps Tony's neck clean in two. Their first kiss replays in his mind. Warm under the rain. Lightning in the sky. Lightning under his human fingertips.

 _Enough,_ Computer says, and Deathlok stills. He's a broken program, stuck in an infinite loop. It's Tony Stark's curiously silent behavior that has him struggling. That's the problem with humans. That's why the Lady tried to wipe them from the planet. They're irrational. They're destructive. They're unpredictable.

Deathlok's expecting an interrogation. More than one. Or at the very least, experimentation of some sort. Perhaps the humans envy the Parts and want to be less human themselves. It won't be enough to save them from the Lady's wrath, but it's a cute thought.

The silent treatment is a surprise.

Tony Stark's a talker, everyone knows that. The Mutants that Tony's people have captured, the ones who managed to escape, they all mention how the interrogation wasn't bad— it's Tony Stark talking your ears off that's the worst part. Even Deathlok's scant memories recall Tony as someone who talked to him. For hours sometimes, chasing the sun down with his words.

But he leaves Deathlok in silence.

Deathlok watches him, because Tony works in the lab without shame, not bothering to shield what he's working on. Perhaps it's arrogance. Deathlok _will_ escape, he knows he will.

And then he can kill Tony Stark once and for all.

##

There is no clock. Computer keeps the time, but Tony keeps the lab lit at all times, so Deathlok is disoriented anyway.

Things happen in fragments.

##

"There's a dungeon here," Deathlok says.

It's day four of the silent treatment. Deathlok's human enough to be bored. He's been bored long enough to figure out that maybe Tony doesn't want to talk to him and that's fine. Deathlok can still manipulate him in a one-sided conversation.

"Further down," Deathlok says. "Computer ran the echoes for me."

Tony's head is bowed over a console but he does pause for a moment at that. Deathlok mutes the grin of success he wants to make. Every small human flinch from Tony is a victory and Deathlok's been collecting them for days.

"Pandora runs twice as deep as this room," Deathlok says. "And we're three hundred feet below sea level ; we're two point seven degrees centigrade hotter than the usual temperature of the area above us."

Tony ignores him, continuing to work. He stops by a cabinet to pour himself a drink and downs it without looking in Deathlok's direction. He looks thinner than he did when Deathlok last chased him to kill him. _All the easier to snap you in two,_ Deathlok thinks.

##

At some point during day five, Tony's not alone. Both Tony and the guy with him move around Venom's glass chamber, muttering in low voices that Deathlok cannot make out, even with his hearing implants still functional. A dampening field of some sort around them, then.

"If there's a dungeon, why am I not in it?" Deathlok asks.

"Does he ever shut up?" the man with Tony asks. Tony just shrugs. It takes Deathlok a moment to place the man's voice. When he does, Deathlok is angry.

Dr. Richards. The same Dr. Reed Richards who worked on Venom. He's a human sympathizer.

"I'm getting out of here," Deathlok says, "and when I do, the Lady will know what a traitor you are."

Richards flinches and makes his excuses. Tony looks across at him then, acknowledging his presence, but just for a second. He looks disappointed. Deathlok smiles at him until Tony turns back around.

##

Three words are the magic key to disintegrate Tony's silence.

"I remember you," Deathlok says.

Tony shoots him a blank look before looking away again and down at the Iron Legion he's fixing. "I'd think you had a good chance," he says. His voice is a little gruff. "You and I worked together for a long time, Steve."

 _Ignore,_ Computer says. _Your designation is Deathlok._ "I remember kissing you."

"This isn't going to work," Tony says.

Deathlok doesn't say anything.

"Needling me," Tony says. "It's not going to work. I know Steve Rogers — the Steve I knew — I know he's gone. I know he's never coming back." He looks over to where Deathlok knows he keeps his alcohol. A brief glance that gives too much away. "But I was hoping there would be enough of him left."

"Why, you want to kiss someone with his face?" Deathlok presses forwards, turns what's left of his human face into a sneer even though Tony's not looking directly at him. "I could do that. You could pretend he's still here."

"You are still in there, Steve. Maybe not the same, but I know you're there."

Deathlok laughs. Tony's amusing, for a human. "You're stubborn, did I ever tell you that?"

Tony's quiet. Then he shrugs. "I know you're still _you._ A broken you. But who isn't a little broken after what Wanda did?"

"You have no right to speak the Lady's name," Deathlok hisses.

Tony looks back at him, his expression carefully neutral. "You were there when she spoke the words," he says. "What was that like?"

Deathlok tries not to freeze, because the influx of memories is too much. Too much.

_Carol's face as she reaches out but Jess disintegrates into pieces, and she's crying, because of course she was too human for Wanda's decree. Steve turns, and he doesn't know where to turn, because people are screaming and people are vanishing and Bruce is smiling at him, regretful, sad, until—_

_Abort,_ Computer says. _Pre-emptive interruption. Focus on your mission._

##

Humans. There are humans everywhere. Injured, bleeding, and Deathlok doesn't know whether to cheer or whether to hide his face, because it's so wrong. It's so wrong to have so many humans so close that should be dead.

They should want to be dead, Deathlok thinks, sparing a disdainful look at the bleeding figures that Tony and his guards are setting up around the lab. Jane Foster brings in stretchers, and then she brings in folding tables, and then she brings in odds and ends—some chairs, a roll of foam, a stack of gym mats.

So many injured humans. Either Pandora is a small base, needing every ounce of space it has, or there has been a massive human casualty count occurring somewhere.Tony Stark moves between each of the victims, talking to them in a low firm tone. Along with some other faces that Deathlok carefully memorizes, Tony works at patching up the injured people, cleaning wounds and stitching the ones necessary.

Tony never had much medical training but he's obviously practiced in it now, because he moves quickly and efficiently, and obsessively, continuing to help people even when the humans assisting him flag.

Deathlok glares at the humans and shouts insults at Tony through the barrier, but Tony doesn't even spare him a single glance. It's infuriating. He slams his hand against the barrier and falls to the ground soon after, holding in a cry of pain.

"That was stupid."

Deathlok looks up from the floor through narrowed eyes. He wishes the barrier was down so he could wring the neck of the person calling him stupid.

The person calling him stupid is a girl, with shoulder-length red hair and wide green eyes. She's wearing a white shift dress that covers her from her neck to her ankles, but her arms are bare. Around one wrist is a thick white band. Her feet are bare. She reminds Deathlok of someone. He can't think who. Even Computer is silent.

"You're stupid," Deathlok says.

The girl barks out a laugh. "You're just copying me."

Deathlok narrows his eyes. "I'm going to kill you."

"You can't," the girl says. "I've seen people in there before. You can't get out. Even if you try and burn through the floor. The last guy who tried died."

Deathlok pulls himself up to his feet and stares down at her, trying to be intimidating, but the girl doesn't even look flustered.

"Hope," Tony says, hurrying into view. Deathlok looks at him, curling his mouth into a smirk. Steve Rogers would smile at him. He's not Steve Rogers. The smirk is better. The smirk says _I'm not him, even if I look a little like him_. "What are you doing here?"

"I heard screaming," the girl says. Her name is probably Hope, Computer suggests.

"There was an attack," Tony tells her, and then, belligerently in Deathlok's direction, he adds, "We won. I know it doesn't look like that with all the blood and the screaming, but—"

"Not them," Hope says. " _Him_."

Tony frowns at her.

"He's broken," Hope says.

Tony opens his mouth to say something, but snaps it shut. He leans down to Hope and looks at the white band on her wrist. He seems something unpleasant, because he snaps, "Your curfew's at the limit. You need to go back."

"I need to—" Hope starts, and looks at Deathlok almost pleadingly, her green eyes focused on him like a laser.

"Come away, Hope," Tony says. Firm. Clipped. An order. He's normally good with children, Deathlok thinks, and hates that he remembers that.

"It's all shouting," Hope says,"the human, the mutation, something else—"

"Time for you to go to bed," Tony says, and he nods over at a couple of exhausted-looking guards, who come in to shepherd Hope away. She throws him one last look before letting them take her. It looks disturbingly like pity.

##

Tony works late into the night, even when the others sleep, even after the casualties slowly get better and vacate the lab.

Tony doesn't sleep so Deathlok doesn't either.

Tony works and Deathlok watches.

It's better than falling asleep because then he dreams, and he dreams of—

 _No,_ Computer says. _Stop._

Deathlok calms. Deathlok waits.

##

"Hello again."

Deathlok looks up. He stopped bothering to stand days ago. Sitting seems better. "Hello," he says.Even though Hope is obviously a young girl, maybe he can get information from her.

"Tony doesn't know I'm in here," Hope says. "He's out saving people."

Deathlok sneers at her. "That's a waste of time," he says. "Humans should die."

"Why?" Hope asks. "I'm human."

"You're a mutant," Deathlok says. It's a guess, but Hope doesn't look confused.

"I'm still human," Hope says. She sits down opposite the energy barrier, copying his position. "Mutants _are_ human."

Deathlok laughs. "Yeah, right."

Hope frowns at him. "Are you a robot?"

"I'm a cyborg," Deathlok says. At her continued frown, he explains. "I was a human but when I got injured, parts of me were fixed with cybernetic replacements. They make me faster, stronger. Better than human." She still looks confused. "I'm technically a human but I have robot parts." He flinches at the word _part_ coming out of his own mouth, but he doesn't have to hold it back. Hope wouldn't understand how horrible it is to be _any_ part human.

"You look like a robot with human bits," Hope says.

It's the nicest thing anyone has ever said to him.

##

Tony always looks tired but he always keeps working: fixing the Iron Legion, fixing people, making weapons. Disappearing in the Iron Man armor and coming back, bloodied and exhausted, and he keeps _going_.

It irritates Deathlok. "Why are you still even bothering?" Deathlok asks. "You know they'll find you again. There's no point fighting. You're outnumbered."

"Maybe," Tony says.

"Maybe?"

"Dying human and _free_ is better than living trapped," he says.

"You're the one that put me in this cage," Deathlok points out.

"I meant the one doing the trapping was your _Lady._ " The sarcasm and dislike in Tony's voice is probably audible to people in space.

"Mutants get to be free," Deathlok says. He should patent a name for the unamused shouts of laughter that Tony makes nearly every day.

Tony makes one of those noises right at that second. He flickers Deathlok a dirty look. "Really, Steve? That's what you're going with? Because following orders and being terrified that your leader is going to kill you, that screams freedom to me."

Deathlok blinks. He remembers Longshot rambling one night about the Lady maybe coming for him after coming for the Parts. He hadn't listened seriously to any of his team mates.

"If we die, we die," Tony says. "But if we do, we'll have gone down trying to survive. There's nothing more human than that."

##

"How did it happen?"

Deathlok stares at Hope. "How did _what_ happen?"

"How did you become a robot in the first place?" Hope prods at the white band on her wrist, and then leans back on her hands, looking at Deathlok with a contemplative expression.

The early days after M-Day are a blur. Deathlok remembers trying to run, and then the Lady took him, because he was important, and he remembers being restrained, and he remembers the Lady moving closer to him — and he remembers just waking up one day and hating humans, hating them to the depth of his being, while Computer soothed him, a calm voice in his ears.

 _He didn't save you,_ Computer says. _He could have._ Deathlok asks Computer _who_ didn't save him, but Computer is silent.

"Parts happen when humans are damaged," Deathlok says.

"What's a Part?" Hope asks.

Parts are rare, so it makes sense she doesn't know. "Me," Deathlok says. "I'm a Part."

"Awesome," Hope says. "Parts are awesome. How did they get that name?"

Deathlok eyeballs her. Humans are so stupid. Parts are too human to be anything good. "When part of their body is destroyed, it's replaced by a cybernetic part."

"How were you damaged?" Hope tilts her head. "Which part of you was made into a robot first?"

"My legs," Deathlok says. "It was definitely my legs."

"Were you always that tall? Did they make you taller?"

Deathlok opens his mouth to answer, but Tony interrupts.

"I told you not to come in here," Tony barks. "Curfew. Downstairs. _Now._ "

Hope sighs and gets to her feet, but she leans in closer and says, "I like your robot legs," before she runs away. She pauses by Tony. "He's still screaming," she says, and leaves. Tony looks contemplative for a second.

Deathlok watches Hope leave the lab and he sneers when Tony sees him doing it. He likes his robot legs too. He likes how they made him faster than when he just relied on the super-soldier serum.

He'll like them better when they're embedded in Tony Stark's _face._

Tony stalks over. "You shouldn't talk to her, Steve."

"Deathlok," Deathlok grits out. "My name is Deathlok."

"Sorry," Tony says, and picks up something that looks like a remote control." _Deathlok._ " He looks Deathlok up and down, assessing.

"Why are you sorry?"

Tony presses his mouth into a line. "Because the next few minutes are going to hurt."

Deathlok has a moment to look confused, but Tony presses a button and the energy barrier collapses inwards.

The last thing Deathlok remembers thinking is this: _finally,_ here's the pain he expected.

##

—

It's not it's not it's not it's not it's not—

WHAT DID HE DO WHAT DID HE DO WHAT DID TONY STARK DO TO HIM

he can't

there's not—

_COMPUTER. WHERE ARE YOU. COMPUTER. RESPOND._

he's never been so _alone_

—

he starts screaming.

no answer.

no answer.

even with his voice at the loudest, it's still so silent.

_PLEASE RESPOND. COMPUTER._

the silence is empty space.

the silence is nothing.

_ERROR ERROR ERROR_

_COMPUTER._

**_PLEASE._ **

_…_

but there's—-

_nothing._

##

Deathlok curls up in the corner and glares and _glares_.

"I'm going to kill you," Deathlok snarls. "What did you do to me?"

Tony looks a hundred years older, a thousand years more tired. From behind the energy barrier he shrugs, a weary shrug tied down by the weight of a million galaxies. "Hope said something was shouting in you. So I took it away."

 _Took it away._ Deathlok glares. Hatred is a human emotion and he's feeling it full force because Computer isn't there to dampen it. Computer is gone. "I'm going to rip the skin from your body piece by _piece,_ " Deathlok hisses.

##

He dreams and Computer isn't there to stop it and Bruce dies in front of him just disintegrates into the sky and it's too much and why didn't he change, why did he just let the Lady take him, it doesn't make any sense, _it never makes any sense._

##

"What did you do to him?" Hope asks, her voice soft. It still carries like a thundering drum to Deathlok's mind. His broken mind. Computer is gone and with it all his calm.

"I took the screaming away," Tony says. "He's better now."

"He's not," Hope says. "You made the screaming _louder_."

Deathlok stares. Mute. Impassive. He's not screaming at all.

"The implant in his head was stopping him from thinking," Tony says. "I took it out. He's better now."

"It was the only thing holding it back," Hope says, and she looks at Deathlok like she's scared.

"Holding what back?" Tony asks, his voice suddenly sharper.

"It doesn't matter," Hope says. "I can make it better too." She smiles the oddest smile Deathlok's ever seen and she holds up a hand into a star shape. Her eyes flash white.

"Hope," Tony says, "what are you—?"

"They added something to him, once upon a time," Hope says, and she's getting closer, or she's getting larger, Deathlok doesn't know. He can't look away as her hand blazes with light. "I'm just going to take it away."

##

"How are you feeling?" Tony asks. It's a day later. Or maybe it's a week. Without Computer keeping track of the days, the eternal light in Tony Stark's lab eats at Deathlok's brain.

"Like I want to rip your face off," Deathlok says.

Tony looks disappointed. "I guess it was too much to hope for that she'd been able to help you," he sighs.

##

Tony pours himself a large tumbler of whisky.

 _Wrong,_ Computer says. Deathlok thinks that over again. It's not Computer. Computer's gone. It's him. _Steve,_ the voice in the back of his mind whispers, almost gleefully. The anger burns.

"You shouldn't drink that," Deathlok says, sharp. He can't hit with his fists but maybe he can attack with his words.

Tony makes a complicated noise over the glass and drinks deeply before slamming the glass down. He looks tired. His clothes and hair are unkempt. His eyes are bloodshot. "Why, Steve, you sound like you care," he says, slowly.

That's not the reason why Deathlok's lingering on it. "It's inefficient," he says, trying to explain the distress he feels at seeing Tony drink. It's all for practical reasons. Illogical actions confuse him the most. That's it. That's what is tripping him up."You're a leader. You should be trying to run at 100% peak efficiency."

"Well," Tony says, picking up the glass again,"mental health ain't so easy to fix, Steve."

"My name is Deathlok."

Tony's mouth curls and he takes another drink. "How could I forget?"  He puts the drink down.

##

The base comes under attack, and Deathlok's hopeful, _so_ hopeful, because he's been here too long for the Lady to trust he's been faithful, but maybe it means death is coming for him, and maybe it's beyond time. He's never felt more human in his life, and it's disgusting. He's a Part. He should be taken apart. It feels like between the Lady and Tony and Hope he has already been taken apart.

The whole base shakes and some of the ceiling of Deathlok's cell comes loose. It's a chunk of rock and without Computer he can't get out of the way. His leg is crushed. There's no human limb inside to be damaged, so he sits there and stares at the mess of cables and dented metal.

After an hour, the attack subsides, and all Deathlok is left with is a half-crushed leg and crushing disappointment that he's still alive.

##

He wakes up a couple of days after that attack to find himself heavily restrained on a slab and Tony tinkering away with the exposed innards of his crushed leg.

Deathlok blinks. And blinks again. What the hell?

He says that out loud, because Computer isn't there to remind him how human an utterance like that is.

"What the hell?"

"I fix broken things," Tony says. "When I can."

Deathlok wriggles to try and get free out of habit but he's not too surprised that he can't move.

"I've disabled most of your motor functions," Tony says. "Guess if you were human that wouldn't have been possible." There's a slight grin on his handsome, sleep-deprived, grease-splattered face. "Sucks to be you."

"Sucks to be you because I'm going to kill you," Deathlok says. "Kill you _dead._ "

"There's another kind?"

Deathlok stays silent, because there's another kind of killing.

Being erased.

Like you never even existed in the first place.

"I'm sorry I don't have the right kind of tech for this, Steve," Tony says. "You'll understand seeing as it's your people that keep blowing up anything decent so other people can't use it."

"They're not my people."

Tony snorts, reaching into Deathlok's knee joint with a pair of pliers. "Then why do you keep doing what they tell you to?"

"Chasing you is fun," Deathlok says. "Killing humans is fun."

Tony's expression sours. "Right."

"I'm going to kill you slowly."

"Sure you are," Tony says. "But it's going to be after I fix you."

Deathlok watches him. Tony seems focused. His expression is a lot like the face he made when Steve kissed him. Intense concentration, all narrowed on him. His mouth feels dry. Steve kissed him. Deathlok didn't. There's a difference. Isn't there? "Why are you bothering?" he says, and his voice cracks.

Tony flickers a brief glance at his face before looking back at Deathlok's leg. He shrugs.

"All you're doing is fix up the person who wants to murder you," Deathlok says.

Tony shrugs again. "I'm fixing you because I have faith in you, Steve."

Deathlok stares at Tony's profile, at the slope of his nose, the downward turn of his eyebrows. "Then you're stupid," he says.

Tony laughs. "You've spent too much time with Hope."

Deathlok is quiet for a moment. Eventually he manages, "Is she—"but then he doesn't finish the question. Tony looks at him, amused, before returning to looking at his work. He's going to make Deathlok finish the question, then. "Is she your daughter?"

Tony fumbles with the pliers and Deathlok watches his foot spasm by itself. "Goodness, no," he says. "She's an orphan." His voice is tight. "Wanda found her parents were working for us. We were too late for them, but thankfully we got Hope away before Wanda discovered what she can do."

Deathlok mouths part of the sentence as he tries to figure it out. "What _can_ Hope do?" he finally asks.

Tony pauses in his work and looks into the distance contemplatively before looking back up at him. "Figure it out for yourself." He grins. There's still no humor in it. "After all, she's already done it to you."

Deathlok will probably never stop frowning at this rate.

##

Maybe the base has been attacked, or maybe the humans have been attacked elsewhere, but a new stream of injured humans come into Tony's lab and this torrent of blood-drenched people doesn't stop. There are injured and bleeding people everywhere. Tony moves around them like a pinball being battered around, his movements quick and urgent, but he's not fast enough. People are dying, and Deathlok—

It's not like he doesn't want humans to die. It's just they should die with his hands around their necks, after a decent attempt to flee for their lives, and not like this, gasping in pools of their own blood.

"Let me help," Deathlok yells through the barrier.

Tony laughs helplessly, elbows deep in someone else's blood, a small girl. She's nearly as tall as Hope. "So now the Part that wants to kill all humans wants to help me save them?"

Deathlok feels cold, frozen, _angry,_ because _Part_ coming out of Tony's mouth—it's the worst. He didn't think Tony would even know the word. Of course he does. It was stupid to think otherwise. Tony knows Deathlok is a Part and he hasn't been calling him it. "I can help," Deathlok says. "Just— c'mon. I'll take my damn legs off so I can't run away."

Tony throws him an almost hysterical look.

"Are you telling me that an extra pair of hands right now would go wrong?" Deathlok asks. He doesn't know why he's so anxious. There's so much blood. It's inefficient.

"Yeah," Tony says, and he won't look Deathlok in the eye. "Yeah, it really could go wrong."

Deathlok slumps back in a heap and stares at the ceiling instead.

##

"Does it hurt?" Hope asks.

Deathlok opens his mouth to say yes, because, generally, everything hurts. Everything's hurt since M-Day. He closes his eyes for a moment to try and refocus, but Bruce Banner smiles at him from his memories, enigmatic, elegiac. He snaps his mouth shut and flings his eyes open. "Does Tony know you're in here?"

Hope shrugs and checks down at her wrist. "I've got time."

"What does that thing do?" Deathlok asks.

"I asked you a question first," Hope says. She settles down in front of Deathlok's cage, crossing her legs and looking up at him expectantly. "Does it hurt?"

"Does _what_ hurt?"

"Being made into a robot," Hope says.

Deathlok blinks. "I suppose it did at the time. It's worth it. Being human means being weak."

"It's not so bad," Hope says. "I bet you miss out on a lot of the good feelings. Like a hug. Is there enough of you left human to enjoy a hug?"

There's a part of his back that's still skin, Deathlok thinks. Part of his arm. Most of his face, if someone comes in close and puts their hands on his cheeks. He remembers how Tony's face felt beneath his fingers.

He shakes that thought away. Of all the memories Steve Rogers still has, the ones that linger stubbornly in his too-human brain, that’s one of the most persistent ones. Tony looking at him with trusting eyes and not with the haunted expression he wears constantly around Pandora. Tony putting his alcohol away and not reaching for it every goddamned day.

"No," Deathlok says.

"I'm sorry," Hope says.

"Your wristband," Deathlok says, his voice choked up for a reason he doesn't want to analyze. "Why do you wear it?"

"It tells the time, silly. It lets me know how much time I'm allowed out of my room. It's a watch." She holds it up and he sees a flash of numbers. "Haven't you ever used one?"

Deathlok thinks. Maybe before M-Day. "I used to have Computer for that," he says.

"Computer?"

"In my head. Tony Stark took it away because you said it was screaming at me."

Hope frowns. "It wasn't the computer that was screaming at you."

"What was it? What was it that you did to me?" Deathlok asks.

Hope tilts her head. "I took the screaming away. One day, Tony says I can do that for the Lady and the world might be fixed."

"The world doesn't need fixing. The Lady fixed the world."

Hope gets to her feet and looks at him with a look of sheer disbelief. "She broke the world, Mr. Steve. My parents weren't human and she still ripped them apart right in front of me. I'll never get a hug from them again. Don't tell me the world is _fixed._ "

He stares after her as she flounces out.

##

The door opens and it's not Hope. It's Tony. It's always Tony. Deathlok sighs and settles back down, leaning against the wall. Hope hasn't come back in what feels like a month but might only be days. He doesn't know. Time isn't a gift Tony lets him have. Tony tinkers with his Iron Legion for a moment, but eventually puts them back into their pod and strides over to Deathlok's cage, a contemplative look on his face.

"Do you still think if you gain my trust you can find a way to escape?" Tony asks.

Deathlok side-eyes him. "What do you want?"

"I want your help, Steve."

"Deathlok."

"Right." Tony drums his fingers on the wall. "So?"

"Why should I help you?"

" _Right,_ " Tony says again, bitterly. "Forget I asked."

"Wait." Deathlok frowns. "I'll do it for a favor."

"I'm not opening your cage," Tony says, immediately.

"Tell me what Hope does."

Tony wavers like he's going to refuse, but then he shrugs. "She changes people," he says. "That's why we have so many humans constantly coming here. Beyond the original ones that were saved. She pulls the mutations right out of you. That's her power. She can make mutants human again."

Deathlok's heart stops. Just for a moment. "What?" He feels cold. "But you said that she—"

"That she used her abilities on you?" Tony keeps making these choking noises which sound like laughter and really aren't. "She did, but only in part. Hope thinks people have the right to choose. She wouldn't make you human without your permission. Of course, that would kill you."

"I'm hopelessly confused."

"She just took out the serum," Tony says. "Congratulations. You're just a regular robot mutant now."

It's ridiculous. "That's ridiculous," Deathlok says. "I don't have any powers. Zero. I'm not a mutant."

"All Parts are part-mutants," Tony says. "Did your Computer never tell you that?"

Deathlok frowns.

"The cybernetic implants don't work on humans. They're a mutant-only technology." Tony smiles wryly. "Don't you think I'd have them myself if I could?"

Tony's right in that it doesn't make sense. Deathlok's wondered a lot why all the remaining humans weren't clamoring to be Parts. But if Parts are mutants, why are the mutants so dismissive of him? "But I'm not a mutant," Deathlok says. None of it makes sense. "I'd know. I'd have powers."

"You probably do. Not all mutants manifest immediately."

"So why not do it now?" Deathlok asks. At Tony's frown, he explains. "If Hope can make Wanda—" Tony's smile stings. "If Hope can make the Lady _human._ Why not now?"

"She's not old enough," Tony says. "I can shield her for so long, in the basement. But… Changing one person tires her out. She's getting stronger as she gets older, but unless we can get Wanda to come on her own, or sneak Hope in to see her, there's nothing we can do but wait."

"But you don't have time," Deathlok says. "I was a scout. Someone to narrow down finding the base. It doesn't matter that you've held onto me. They're getting closer by the day."

"And when they get here, I'll use this," Tony says, and indicates a panel on the wall. Deathlok frowns at it. "This has the command to detonate the whole base. It'll bring it down right on our heads."

"But—" Deathlok frowns. "Won't that—"

"It'll kill me and everyone in the base, sure," Tony says. His voice is low. "Better Hope dead than in the Lady's hands."

Deathlok stares. Was Tony Stark so callous and cold when they used to be friends? All he can remember is a man by his side, and the warmth of Tony's mouth under his as they kissed, again and again— He shoves those mental images aside. Computer is gone, but he can tell his own memories _no._   A subject change will help. "Before, you asked for a favor. What is it that you wanted?"

Tony brings up a holographic screen with some stuttering images. All he wants is for Deathlok to identify some of the mutants that they don't know about. Deathlok feels no compunction at all in pointing out Toad and Coulson. They both call him _Part_ like it's the worst word on the planet, even though _human_ is a thousand times worse.

Tony says he's not human, not at all, but is that a lie? Do Toad and Coulson _know_ the Parts are mutant? Maybe they're scared of him? Maybe cyborgs are better than mutants, and they know that, and they're _scared._ A feeling like anger ripples through him.

"Who’s the big ugly looking one?" Tony asks. He's pointing at En Sabah Nur.

"That's Nur," Deathlok says. "He'll be the one that tortures you to death."

"That sounds like a noise, not a name." Tony squints at the image. "That's the one thing that baffles me about mutations. They just seem so random. Some people get a small power, others get _that._ "

"They say when the mutant gene activates, it finds something about you that's strong and latches on," Deathlok explains.

Tony grits his teeth. "I really don't wanna know what that guy latched onto, but my initial guess is a really ridiculously big scorpion-stroke-blue swiss army knife."

Deathlok eyeballs Nur's limbs, all of which have been shaped into wicked looking blades. "Good guess."

##

The walls rock. Deathlok presses himself to the outside edge of his room and watches the roof warily. He expects the attack to subside soon but it takes three hours until the shaking stops.

Deathlok recognizes the weaponry that the Lady is using. He's seen it used before and the shaking is distinctive. It's a wide-reaching disruptor blast, and it means they've narrowed Pandora's location down even more.

It will be a matter of days before Pandora is found for sure.

Deathlok watches as Tony Stark hurries around the room, dispatching Iron Legion from his consoles, and Deathlok keeps watching, and then the impossible happens —

The power goes down.

There's darkness for a long moment, so pitch black that even when Deathlok lifts up his hand and waves it in front of his face, he can't see a thing, not even the slightest glimpse of his metal fingers. And then the room flickers and turns red, emergency lighting flooding the room.

But the energy barrier doesn't come back up.

Deathlok steps forwards despite himself. And another. And instead of being flung backwards, he's out - standing in Tony's lab. Unimpeded.

He catches Tony's eye from across the room and for a moment their eyes just lock. Deathlok glances over at the doorway, at the easy path towards it, and then he looks back at Tony. Tony's shoulders sag and he leans against the nearest table before looking away.

Deathlok's head is pounding.

"Steve," Tony says. That's all he says. Deathlok shudders at the sound of it. And then Tony says, "Please."

_"Don't make me go," Tony says. The rain is falling around them, unceasing, cool to the skin. Tony's mask is up and his face is warm beneath Steve's fingers. "Steve," Tony says, and maybe they can keep pretending there's nothing between them, maybe they can pretend they're just friends, but Tony says, "Please," and Steve is lost. He kisses him, and kisses him, and he never wants to stop._

Their eyes meet across the room. Deathlok swallows. It's too much. It's too _much._

He turns and he flees the room as fast as his cybernetic limbs will take him.

##

Deathlok knows it's a mistake as soon as he hits above ground. He moves anyway, feeling dazed. Does his mission still count? Does he want it to? He keeps an eye on the skies, but no Iron Legion come his way. In the distance, Deathlok can see the quinjet hovering against a sky of dark clouds, the repulsor cannons lowered. If he goes there now, it'll be easier to give them the location of Pandora.

Deathlok thinks of Tony saying _please_.

He thinks of Hope, sitting cross-legged in front of his cage, smiling at him.

He hesitates, and he hesitates too long, because in the distance there's movement, a number of people coming into view that are familiar to him.

Blindfold stands in front of the group, looking across at him, a vicious smirk curving her mouth to one side. "Found him," she says.

Deathlok's legs crumple beneath him, because every group of mutants that work with a Part carry a deactivation device. He lies in the dirt as his team comes over. Deathlok scowls at Toad, who looks pleased with himself.

"About fucking time," Toad snarls. "We've been roaming this piece of crap desert for five weeks for your stupid metal ass. What took you so long to escape?"

Deathlok glares up at him, but he doesn't speak.

"Is the base near here?" Longshot asks. He looks over at Blindfold. "What's he thinking?"

The material over Blindfold's face crinkles — a frown. "Weird," she says. "I can't read him. I used to be able to read him as clear as I could a page in a book."

Toad cocks his head at her. "Aren't you blind?"

"It's called braille, dumbass," Longshot says. He stares down at Deathlok. Deathlok stares back. He jerks his head at Toad. "Bring him. Maybe he'll be more talkative when we get him back to base."

##

It's protocol, that's the problem. That's something Deathlok should have remembered. Any agent - Part or mutant - gone longer than a week are assumed to be corrupted.

Deathlok thinks of Tony saying _please_ and he thinks of Hope and he feels sick. He shouldn't have left the base. He doesn't know now why he did. Before the mission, everything had been so easy. Follow orders. Do what the Lady says. Hate humans. Try and kill Tony Stark. Just how much of Deathlok's thoughts for the last five years have been his, and how many have been Computer's?

It doesn't matter. His thoughts are his own now, and he will control them. Toad straps him onto one of Nur's torture slabs with more pleasure than is necessary, his amphibian-like face stretched into a grin.

"I'm gonna enjoy watching Nur take you apart," Toad says. He pauses for a moment and then reaches out and pulls off the two shields that Deathlok wears on his arms. They're not the shield he used to have, that was lost once upon a time, but they're painted the same - white stars in a set of red target circles. Enough to make people remember who Deathlok used to be. A symbol of hope for humans turned into a symbol of fear.

Deathlok just stares impassively as Toad takes the shields away.

Without Computer there to tone the pain down, Nur's going to be able to peel him to pieces.

He shouldn't have left. He should have stayed. Stayed with Tony.

Deathlok keeps his breathing calm as he feels the presence in the corner. Nur striding in, a look of triumph on his face, his arms instantly shifting into wicked-looking blades.

Deathlok stares straight ahead.

"Tell me what you learned about Pandora," Nur says, leaning in close, "and I'll make all the pain go away."

Deathlok thinks about it. He looks Nur in the eye. "Go to hell," he says.

Nur smiles. "You first."

##

Deathlok allows Toad and Blindfold to drag him. He could probably walk, but it's better to let them pull him along. Toad swears under his breath about lazy damned Parts. Deathlok keeps his gaze lowered as he counts guards.

He needs to get back to Pandora. He needs— He needs—

He needs to realize he's being taken to the Lady.

Nur's been trying for three days to break him. It hasn't worked. Deathlok would smile if his face wasn't a bloodied, swollen mess.

If Nur can't crack someone, they send them to the Lady. That's where Deathlok's going. He doesn't even have to look up to identify that he's being dragged into her shining white throne room.The Lady will try to pull the answers right out of his mind. Good luck to her, Deathlok thinks, when he doesn't even have the answers to most of his own questions.

"I tried to read him on the way like you asked, but I can barely read him, my Lady," Blindfold says as she finishes helping to haul Deathlok to the base of the steps leading up to the Lady's dais. The material stretched over her face wrinkles, like she's frowning.

"Is that so?" The Lady tilts her head and finally turns around. She has a smile on her face the color of blood. "Should I let En Sabah Nurhave more time to read you, Mr. Rogers?"

Deathlok tries to keep his face neutral but he obviously fails. Without Computer, he's lost.

"No," the Lady sighs, "I think we'll do this the quick way." She tilts her head. Some say the Lady lost her mind, well before M-Day, but that's slander that Deathlok's never believed. Until now.

She floats towards him, fingers outstretched.

"Unfortunately, the quick way hurts," the Lady says. Her fingers make contact with the human flesh of the remains of his face and the pain begins.

##

Deathlok tries to hold back. He tries his best to keep his mind away from her. But without Computer, and in the face of the Lady, there's nothing he can do. She pulls everything out of him in a flurry of fire and Deathlok watches his own memories alongside her. Tony's face. His kindness. His unamused laughter. Deathlok tries to focus on her, but he can't, and the Lady keeps pushing, and that's when she finds Hope in his mind.

He tries to fixate on the tiny details. Her red hair. Her green eyes. The white watch on her wrist. But the Lady pushes and the Lady _takes_ and Deathlok mouths the memories along with her:

_"Tell me what Hope does.""She can make mutants human again."_

_"This has the command to detonate the whole base. It'll bring it down right on our heads."_

His brain is on fire, he thinks. That's how it feels. She digs in deeper, pulling out the location of Pandora, pulling out everything he can remember, and when she's done, she throws him down to the ground and he can do nothing but gasp for air. His lungs feel like they're burning.

It's Coulson's voice, low in the background. "He's alive?"

"He's strong," the Lady says. "Take him down to one of the restraint rooms. Nur might enjoy having something to play with after we've dealt with this situation."

Deathlok's too groggy to fight. He's dragged away by two mutants. He thinks it's Longshot and Forge. He's not sure. All he is sure of is the Lady standing on her dais, her mouth set in a cruel line.

Deathlok feels nauseous. The Lady may be the one who's thinking of murdering a child, but Deathlok's just as guilty. By running away from Tony Stark the instant he could, he's managed to give the Lady an exact roadmap on where to find Hope and how to make sure she dies. When Longshot throws him into one of the dark holding cells, it feels like an appropriate move.

##

He's not incensed enough to even try and escape until he sees it, through the small barred window in the holding cell: a distant cloud of smoke, and it rises into the sky, and keeps on billowing outwards.

Deathlok's stomach sinks.

Pandora.

_No._

Tony's hit the self-destruct.

Hope.

Hope is—

How can Hope be gone?

Deathlok closes his eyes and a sound fills the room. It's a terrible sound, one that reminds Deathlok of pain and agony worse than what Nur tried to inflict on the human remains of his flesh, and when he opens his eyes again, he realizes he's alone in his cell and _he's_ the one that made the noise.

Hope is gone. And he—

He liked her.

Human, mutant, it doesn't matter. Hope is—

Hope _was_.

Deathlok thought he knew how to be angry. He thought he knew what anger was. He was wrong. This was anger. He's boiling up with it, shaking, vibrating with rage. Hope is gone. The Lady knew Hope could change her, and for that, Hope had to die? He wonders how Tony's coping with it, but then he remembers that Tony would have had to personally activate the self-destruct and there's no guarantee Tony got away before the whole base exploded. He looks through his window to try and spot the telltale blur of red and gold that says Iron Man has escaped the rubble, but he knows even while he scours the scant piece of sky he's allowed from the cell that Tony won't have saved himself. Not when downing the base meant killing everyone else in there.

Tony wouldn't have let himself live after killing Hope.

Hope's probably already dead. His stomach churns. But if Tony's still in the armor, there's a chance he might have survived. Deathlok narrows his eyes. The base has amazing security. But Deathlok _is_ made of a lot of metal. Maybe it's not so weird a theory that he could maybe get out of the building another way.

Actually, he kind of thinks it's impossible, and he's done enough guard tours around the base that he feels it shouldn't be possible, but Deathlok manages to punch through the inner wall of the cell, right through to the hallway. He stands amongst the rubble and catches his breath, but starts running almost immediately after he's inhaled two large gulps of air, because he's been a second too late for people before, and nothing hurts more than that. He drops by the armory and punches through the wall of that too, because he's on a roll, and because he wants his shields back where they belong. Then he punches through some guards and heads out into the desert and he _runs._

He's barely thinking. That's what a good chase is like. That's probably why he enjoys tearing after Tony Stark so much, and why he's never been able to catch him. Deathlok doesn't want to catch Tony Stark. He just wants to spend a lot of time chasing him. Deathlok's not the Steve Tony used to know, but he's Steve _enough_ to just— to just want to spend time with him, even if it is chasing him to kill him.

That's in the past, though. The Lady will never let him work for her again, and Steve is happy about that.

Wait. _He's_ happy about that. Not Steve. He's not Steve. He's not. He's Deathlok. Steve is just the parts of him that lurk around his mind and remember what it was like to be human. Steve's the part of him that's _wrong._ Steve wouldn't have run away from Tony in Pandora, he'd have stopped, and he'd have stayed, and he'd have probably been taken and tortured by Nur and he'd have resisted, and—

He did resist. And why? For some girl he's barely even met? It's illogical. It's inefficient. It's _Steve._

It's exactly why humans are supposed to be such a mess, but if Tony's right, and Parts are mutants, then Hope is right too - mutants are just humans - and the whole thing is a terrible horrible confusing mess. He doesn't know which way is up or down any more. Computer made things easy, but Computer is gone. His past is gone. Deathlok's missions are gone.

Pandora's gone, but somewhere beneath the rubble, if the Iron Man suit protected him enough, Tony Stark might be alive.

Deathlok wouldn't care. Deathlok would be happy Tony Stark was finally dead. Deathlok would be running to Pandora now to see if there were any human survivors to obliterate.

He's not doing any of that.

He's running to save Tony Stark. He's running to see if there's a hope beyond utter hope that Hope could be alive. Some of Deathlok may have survived the process, but on Nur's torture slab, any of that part of him was carved away, leaving only the human parts of his mind behind to cling to.

Deathlok died on Nur's torture table. There's no space in his mind for his old undiscerning hatred of humanity, not when the lines are blurring too much. And yet Steve Rogers' memories are mostly gone, erased by years of pain and torment and the smallest of brain implants where Computer used to be. There are only glimpses left of the person Steve used to be.

Maybe it just means there's space enough to become something else. A different Steve. Not one like before, who lead men into war for good reasons, and stood up for bullies, and planted himself in the ground to make other people move. But maybe he can be the Steve he _does_ remember. He can be the Steve that fought alongside Tony Stark. He can be the Steve that kissed Tony Stark in the rain. He remembers enough to know it only happened the one time, and that's a shame: _that_ Steve Rogers was clearly an idiot.

Deathlok closes his eyes for a second. And Steve opens them.

From now on, he's free. Human, Part, cyborg, _whatever_. Labels don't matter.

Tony matters.

##

There's no sign of the Lady's mutant teams at the site where Pandora used to be. Just the usual trails of devastation. She likes to leave the human resistance camp remains behind, smoking craters to show her power, to warn others who would resist her of what would follow their defiance.

Steve doesn't even know why he's so sure Tony's down there. He'd have fought until the end, and he'd have been in his Iron Man armor, and with an attack on Pandora, a heavy one, Tony will have hit the button to self-destruct the base. No question. And the base would have come down, a million tons of rock and steel. There may have been a countdown, Steve thinks, and the mutants will have fled, but Tony wouldn't.

He'd have stayed. Pandora had a basement, Steve calculated that early on in his stay, and Tony's nothing if not melodramatic — Hope will have been in the basement. That's where Pandora found hope, locked in the bottom of a box.

In the original myth, Pandora's box wasn't crushed like this, with Hope destroyed in the bottom so that nobody could have it.

Tony. That's what matters. The mutants might have thought Tony would be alive, but they would have left him, to die buried alive in a tomb of his own making. They wouldn't have thought anyone would be able to reach him in time.  They were hopefully very wrong. Steve doesn't know how he does it. He just digs.He digs and digs and digs. There's something coursing him through him, a determination, he thinks. Maybe it's stubbornness. Maybe it's panic. It fuels him as he dives down into the rubble of the destroyed Pandora base, shoving rubble aside as fast as his cybernetic arms can move. Even a Part should have broken down long before Steve does, but he ignores that and keeps going.

He digs for hours. He denies making a noise when he sees a flash of red and gold beneath a large slab of rock.

Incensed, Steve keeps digging. He's enraged. The Lady did this because Deathlok was weak, because he couldn't keep Pandora's secret self-destruct button, or its precious cargo in Hope, to himself. It hurts, but not as much as Nur carving into his flesh hurt, so he screams into the pain and digs until he can reveal enough of Tony's body to pull him free.

The Iron Man armor is a casualty of Steve's desperation, but it doesn't matter; when Steve pulls Tony free of the wreckage, and Tony coughs and splutters in his arms, they collapse together for a moment, and Steve just holds him. Just for a moment. Steve Rogers as was might be gone, but there's more than enough of him in Steve's brain to be singing in triumph, more than enough of him to make a smile slide onto his face that he can't control.

For a moment, he holds Tony and listens to him breathe, and Tony dazedly looks up at him in happy relief, and for a moment Steve thinks— is Tony going to kiss him? And for one second Steve thinks _maybe_ — but then their eyes meet and Tony's expression slowly fades into dawning horror. Steve remembers Hope and everything feels cold and horrible again.

"She was in the basement," Tony says, confirming Steve's theories in one sentence spoken in a broken voice. He pulls away from Steve and tries to stand up but he falls to his knees; Steve shifts over and holds him up, and Tony shakes his head, pulling away. "She was—" He turns to look at Steve, a haunted expression on his face. "Why are you here?"

"I got away," Steve says. "Had to find you."

Tony turns and starts pulling at the rubble himself, weak human hands struggling to pick up even one chunk of rock. "Disappointed you didn't get to kill me yourself, huh, Deathlok?"

"My name's Steve," Steve says.

Tony's mouth moves involuntarily, and he squints at Steve in the dimming light. He blinks a few times. "Honestly, I had half a secret base land on top of me," he says, blinking some more. "Don't judge me for being winded and confused. It takes a lot out of a guy." His eyes scan the rubble and he focuses in on another chunk of rock, trying to lift it up. "So?"

"So what?"

"Are you going to kill me?" Tony says. He's half naked from the waist up, his inner Iron Man suit torn and bedraggled, and he's just _so_ human and still trying to do something with the rubble from Pandora, which is beyond ridiculous.

"No."

"Then what are you doing here?"

Steve shrugs. "I don't even really know myself. I just had to be near you."

"This," Tony says, "has been a very long day and I'm very confused, and I don't care right now if you're trying to gain my trust— if you could use your robot arms for something better than just standing there uselessly, I'd appreciate it."

Steve glares at him and even moves forwards to where Tony is trying and failing to pick up a large chunk of rock that looks like it used to be the ceiling to Tony's lab before he falters. "Um. What are we doing?"

"Digging," Tony says, like he's not failing miserably at it, and like it makes all the sense in the world. "Hope's down there. I need to get her out."

"Hope's dead."

"Yeah, probably," Tony says. "So help me or get lost."

Steve stares. Maybe Tony just needs some closure?

As much as Steve in one way really doesn't want to find Hope's body, he continues working, right through nightfall and into the dawn too, as the world changes color around them. No more mutants come. They must think they've won, Steve thinks. Apparently the Lady isn't as infallible as they say she is. Steve digs, and he digs, and he digs, getting angrier as he goes.

The Lady wanted Hope dead and Steve doesn't know _why_ he's so angry about her succeeding, but— Maybe he doesn't need to know why? Maybe it's okay just to _feel_ the anger. He lets the anger be his momentum as he digs, Tony stoically trying to help but functionally useless with his human arms and human weakness— but despite that, Tony keeps going, so maybe— maybe that's the real human _strength._ Steve wishes he had Computer, because he feels like there's a lot of things that are going to be very confusing for a long time.

He continues to dig, anger keeping him focused, and he recognizes the noise he makes as his own when he moves a large steel girder, snapped clean it two, to unveil a small figure beneath it.

Hope's small body is supine, her white dress fanned over her like a shroud.

Steve's heart jolts in his mostly metal chest and he moves on auto-pilot to move enough rocks out of the way to pull her free. He picks up her small body like she's the most precious cargo, and he places her on a rock next to Tony.

The girder protected her from being crushed in the chaos. It looks like she probably suffocated to death. Steve can't stop staring at her.

Tony moves to stand next to Steve, and Steve side-glances at him. His vision's a little blurry, but Tony looks almost impassive, and Steve thinks he's made a huge mistake, because Tony can't be ambivalent about this, he _can't._

Steve's shaking his head in disbelief when it happens. Below them, Hope's body spasms. And again. Light sparkles over her body and then she sits up, gasping and choking. Tony grins and kneels down, putting his arms out, and Hope's eyes snap open and she throws herself into Tony's arms.

Steve stares. What the hell?

##

Hope likes hugs, Steve remembers. Steve remembers how it felt to have Tony so close, with Steve's arms flung around him, and he thinks maybe Hope is on to something.

She's also very much alive, which is really— It's really freaking _great._ Steve's never been happier. He doesn't know how it happened or why it happened, but she's important in a way he can't explain. Yes, she has an amazing gift, but Steve probably doesn't care if the Lady has her powers taken away or not. Tony cares about that, so Steve's probably going to have to learn to be concerned about it, but the thought of Hope being dead? It hurt more than Nur's torture, or the Lady rifling through his head. It even hurt more than when Tony turned Computer off.

He wants to keep her safe. This second chance doesn't make much sense, but Steve wants to take it, if Tony will let him.

"Aw, the ceiling smashed my watch though," Hope sighs, holding up her arm and showing Tony the smashed-up white band that's half-dangling from her wrist.

"I'll make you a new one," Tony says, and Hope smiles, and really, the word confused is not enough to cover how Steve is primarily feeling.

"I don't understand," Steve says. "How is she alive?"

" _She_ has a name," Hope says loudly, snuggling into Tony's arms. Tony leans into her for a moment, and then he sighs, and glances at Steve like he's apologizing.

"I told you it was a trap," Tony says. "Right at the beginning. I told you it was _all_ a trap."

 _Everything was a trap,_ Tony said. _Sorry._

Steve's mouth works silently for a moment. "But—"

"We knew you— the mutants— were zeroing in on Pandora," Tony says. "We knew they would try and use Venom, if they could, to send in a Part."

"You said that before," Steve says. "That you changed Venom so he would only work for a Part."

"Yeah. But what I didn't say was— we knew that we couldn't hold onto a Part for too long, whichever Part Wanda decided to send. The combination of cybernetics on a mutant body— my base was never equipped to hold that." Tony shrugs. "We knew the Part would be found and that my base would have to fall."

Steve frowns. He still doesn't quite understand.

"There are a lot of pre-cogs among the mutants," Tony says. "I wasn't sure if it would be a pre-cog or Wanda herself that read you, but I knew once you were found, you'd be read. And they would know what you know."

Steve squints. "And what do I know?"

"Not as much as you should," Tony admits. "Because it was a trap. I wanted them to come for me. I wanted them to have the knowledge of the self destruct. I wanted them to make me use it." He bares his teeth at Steve in what's probably supposed to be a smile but resembles a predator looking forward to his next meal. "And now they think we're dead."

"But—" Steve frowns. "But dropping the base down should have killed Hope. How…?"

"I'm special," Hope says. She holds out her hand and it glows slightly, and she smiles at Steve. "I have a friend from space who's sharing my body. I'm just not old enough yet to use her right, but I will be. Given enough time, I can save the world."

"And time was what we didn't have," Tony says.

Steve thinks about her glowing hand. He thinks about seeing her dead, and seeing her come back to life. He blinks, several times, and then startles with the realization.

Back when Coulson had shown him how Venom was used as a disguise, he'd thought about the Phoenix force, and how it had disappeared. How it had twice eluded the Lady's grasp.

And it was here, sitting in this small girl. The small mutant with the power not just to change mutants into humans, but also simmering with an otherworldly power.

One that could free them all, Part and mutant and human alike.

"Now they think we're dead, I can raise her in peace," Tony says. "And when she's old enough, we're going to march right up to the Lady and offer her the choice." He bares his teeth in another frightening smile. "It's such a shame the Phoenix force wants to go to war if she chooses to stay a mutant."

"You're going to offer her a choice?" Steve barks one of Tony's trademark unamused laughs. "Seriously?"

"Everyone deserves to have a choice," Hope says. She tilts her head and looks at Steve curiously. "Do you want the choice? I took the serum from you. I can take your mutation from you."

"It would kill me," Steve says, thinking about what Tony said and the cybernetic parts only working for mutants.

"No one said it was a good choice," Hope says, shrugging.

"I think I'm okay," Steve says. "Plus, it's not even an active mutation."

" _Ha,_ " Tony says.

Steve turns to him, frowning.

"You dug through the rubble of a million ton facility," Tony says. "At least four floors down."

"Well, yes, I guess," Steve says. "I _am_ mostly made up of robot parts. And it was easy. The angrier I got, the faster—"

Understanding hits like a million tons of rock.

"The angrier I got, the stronger I got," Steve whispers. Cold creeps down his spine, one of the other few parts of his body that's still human. "Oh," he says, winded.

"Oh?" Tony prompts.

Steve looks at him, feeling torn apart. "My mutation," he says. "They say— they say when the mutant gene activates, it finds something about you that's strong and latches on." His face wrinkles up. In a small voice, he continues: "During M-Day, when Wanda said _no more humans,_ Bruce Banner—"

Tony's eyes are locked on his, his eyes wide. He's silent, letting Steve speak.

Steve struggles, but Tony and Bruce were close. He deserves to know what happened to his friend. "Bruce was right in front of me," Steve says."He could have changed into the Hulk. He could have been saved. He didn't, and he—"

_No more humans! Wanda cries. The world begins to rip apart. Steve turns to Bruce, expecting to see his friend shift into his impermeable green skin, but he doesn't. Carol's screaming behind him as Jess evaporates into the sky. Bruce just smiles. Enigmatic. Regretful. Sad. Steve reaches for him, but there's nothing to reach for, as he disintegrates into nothing but an empty space where he used to be._

"He disappeared right in front of me," Steve finishes, hollowly.Steve frowns. So _that's_ what his new mutant gene latched onto. He doesn't know really understand. Everything had seemed so simpler with Computer. "I—" he starts, awkwardly. Hope is quiet, clinging onto Tony's body, and Steve is—He feels like he should be lost. Technically he's a fugitive now. A traitor to the Lady. He doesn't have Computer to keep him calm and tell him what to do. And he wants— He wants to help keep Hope safe.

"You know the best part of all of this?" Tony says.

Steve frowns. He can actually think of a few examples, most of which boils down to the red-haired girl clinging to Tony somewhat adorably. "What?"

"The base we blew up, it wasn't even Pandora," Tony says.

Steve stares. He stares some more. Tony waggles his eyebrows. Steve sighs. Humans are so freaking complicated.

"Did you really think I'd blow up my best base?" Tony squints. "Not for you, buddy." He scratches absent-mindedly at his arm and looks over at the horizon, obviously trying to figure out their next move. "Do you wanna come and see the real Pandora?" Tony asks. "I'll have to test you somewhere else first, of course — Wanda might have bugged you. But after that."

"Uh," Steve says. He looks down at himself. His blue, red and white paint is scratched. His human skin is roughened and bruised and bleeding. He's nothing but a mess. "But how could you even trust me?"

"I've got some ideas about that," Tony says. "And until then, I have faith."

##

Extremis isn't Computer, but sometimes Tony talks in his comms right into Steve's brain, and it's like having Computer back, just for a moment.

Stevesits on the edge of the bed and watches Tony work. Hope is dodging around, shooting glances at her watch. Her curfew is stricter now, her basement room more protected, because they can't risk the Phoenix force leaking. They can't risk the Lady knowing that Hope is still alive. Hope takes the restrictions well. No one can know she's alive. Even Tony stays in the base — if he's seen, the Lady might doubt Hope's demise and the whole cycle could start again.

Steve doesn't think this base is Pandora, even though Tony says _every_ resistance base they move to is Pandora. He's starting to think maybe they're _all_ Pandora.Jane Foster and Reed Richards are over in the corner, watching Steve warily. He doesn't blame them. He feels just as out of place as he did as a rare Part working among the mutants. There'll probably never be anywhere Steve feels like he belongs, but maybe that's a good thing. Maybe it means he can pick his place in the world because of what he _wants,_ rather than just fitting into a niche and being too comfortable to leave.

Extremis is complicated, and Tony says soon he can install a basic AI and Steve can have Computer back for real, if he wants it. Steve's undecided. Computer used to help him process his feelings, but mostly, Computer held them back to let Steve focus. Steve's starting to like not knowing what he's feeling. Humans are complicated, and maybe that's okay. Extremis also means that it's going to be possible soon for humans to be Parts too, and Steve's doing his best to convince Tony not to go that route. There's a lot of great things that cybernetic implants can do to you, but maybe there's something they take away from you too. Steve won't ever remember what it's like to touch Tony with human fingers again. He has the one memory. He holds onto that.

Extremis means Steve doesn't have to be a mutant, though. So it shouldn't be a surprise when Hope sits next to him one day and offers him the choice. She holds out a hand and Steve takes it, as surprised as ever that the girl trusts his metal hands to hold her gently and not crush her bones.

Tony watches them as Hope leads him into a side room. He looks haunted.

"So?" Hope says. "What do you want?"

Steve looks at her. Isn't that always the most difficult question of all?

##

"Lift that for me," Tony says, a few minutes after Steve ambles out of the room. Hope tried to give him a hug and he barely felt it, but it made her smile as she skipped off back to her basement room, so he can't begrudge it.

Steve still responds almost automatically to orders, but that's another thing he's been thinking about - he kind of likes orders. For all that he's now working in a human resistance camp, and assisting their efforts, Steve doesn't have a side. Steve Rogers would have picked the humans’ side. Steve just picks Tony's side. He wonders if there really is a difference. Steve lifts up the machinery for Tony and it's only when it's up in the air that he realizes it's probably heavier than either his cybernetic limbs or old super-soldier serum powers could manage.

"How did you know?" Steve says. "That I'd keep the mutation?"

"Well, apart from the fact you still seem to rampantly hate all humans, despite working hard to save our pathetic butts," Tony says, and he's not looking at Steve, "I know you."

Steve holds the machinery up and he frowns. "You don't," he says. "You said that you wanted to know how much of Steve Rogers was left, and it's not— It's not as much as I know you wanted. But—"

Tony looks at him then, but it's not helpful, because his expression is ambiguous. Steve wonders again whether Extremis could give him a Computer that could decipher Tony Stark's face. Human expressions are very confusing. There's probably not a dictionary big enough to decipher them. "It's cute how you think I'm the same Tony Stark as I was. War changes people. If past Tony Stark could see me now, he'd probably be disappointed. And if past Steve Rogers could see me— He'd probably be horrified at how willing I was to actually kill Hope if that's what we needed to do." His voice drops. "He'd hate me."

"I know I'm not—" Steve sighs, and tries again. "I know I'm not entirely him. But I can't— I can't imagine that he would be able to hate you forever."

"You tried to kill me for nearly five years straight," Tony reminds him.

"It's funny how clearly that I can imagine that he would be able to hate you for five years."

Tony snorts. "Still, I knew you'd keep the mutation."

"How?" Steve squints and lowers the heavy machinery into the notch Tony indicates. It clicks and whirs and starts making beeping noises and Tony seems satisfied. "And _don't_ say faith."

"I knew because Bruce was your friend," Tony says. "And deep down, that's what makes you tick. That's what makes you _Steve._ You'd do anything for your friends."

Steve stares at Tony wordlessly.

"Your newly gained mutant gene latched onto Bruce because it was the only way your body knew how to keep him alive," Tony says. "And if you're anything like me, seeing a friend die in front of you once is bad enough." He looks at Steve with a haunted expression. "You'd do anything to not see it happen again."

Steve frowns. "What are you—"

Tony's not looking at him, but he starts speaking, working on a weapon for the Iron Legion with trembling hands. "You don't remember much of the aftermath of M-Day, but I do," Tony says.

Steve watches him and stays quiet. He doesn't know what to say. He doesn't like the tone in Tony's voice.

"You weren't always on Wanda's side," Tony says. "After M-Day, once I came back from space and the Guardians, we fought together. When we found out about Hope, we went to rescue her together. Thor was there too. It was raining through the whole mission. We got her out, and I— I reached for you and we kissed and I'd never been happier in my life."

The kiss— it had been _after_ M-Day? Steve's memories are a jumble. He'd always assumed the memory, so clear, so bright, had been from a time when no one hated humans but other humans.

"I made a joke about making our own sparks, because the sky was lit up with lightning and we both thought it was the weather. But it wasn't nature causing the lightning. Wanda had awoken En Sabah Nur, and Thor found out."

"Thor," Steve says, dully. "I remember Thor."

"He should have stayed in Asgard, but he didn't. And he was late. Too late. You still tried to rescue him, and I lost you both." Tony looks up at Steve then, and Steve almost recoils, because Steve thinks he hated Tony Stark more than anyone else in the world, once upon a time, but Tony—

Tony looks like he had Deathlok completely beat for how much one person could hate Tony Stark.

"I'm not sure what exactly happened," Tony mutters. "I tried to come in close but by that time, Thor was— And you were already— And I almost thought you were _dead_ —"

"It's okay," Steve says, "it's war, things happen in war."

Tony grimaces. "You don't understand. You weren't dead. You looked at me and you told me to leave you behind. And I did."

And the thing is—

The thing is, maybe Steve can remember that.

Just a little.

 _Don't make me go._ Tony's face close to his, pleading, desperate. _Steve. Please._

"I kissed you," Steve says.

Tony's eyes are wide.

"I don't remember much, but I remember that," Steve says. He swallows. "I remember that, and I remember—" He reaches forward instinctively, and it's not human fingers now, his fingers are metal, but they still curl up to Tony's cheek, gentle and with wonder, and Tony makes a noise and presses into his hand all the same. "I thought I was dead," Steve says, "and I couldn't bear the idea of you dying too. If you hadn't left, I'd have hated you."

He ended up hating Tony anyway, of course, and that's probably the memory the Lady twisted to make him feel that hate — Steve lying on the ground, legs crushed, watching Tony Stark fly away. He doesn't remember it now, but he'll have remembered it _then._

"I hated me," Tony says. "I hated me for a long time."

"You talk like you still do."

Tony laughs. "Do you blame me?"

"Not for leaving me," Steve says. "Leaving was efficient."

"Sometimes I think you haven't changed at all, and then sometimes, you just say something so—"

"Weird?" Steve says.

"Well, I was going to say _robotic,_ " Tony says. "But if the shoe fits."

"I don't really wear shoes," Steve says. "My feet are metal. There's no point."

Tony laughs and this time— this time it's not one of those humorless sounds. Steve is suddenly aware of how close Tony still is, and of course he is, Steve's metal fingers are still on his face. "Okay, funny guy," Tony says, "we've got a world to finish saving."

Steve reluctantly lets go, but there's a color to Tony's cheeks that's encouraging. He's still not sure which side he believes in, but that doesn't matter. He's on Tony's side. That's the important part.

##

"Are you sure?" Steve asks.

"Even if you're caught, Extremis won't let any of the psychics get anything from your brain," Tony says. "I'm sure."

"How sure?"

"Do you feel calmer knowing that if you're irredeemably captured, I've set Extremis to melt your brain?"

"Actually," Steve says, "yes?"

Tony sighs. "You're so weird."

Steve beams, before climbing into the elevator with four Iron Legion and heading out. The nearby city is mostly abandoned, but preliminary Iron Legion scans indicate there's a pocket of humanity in there, and Steve wants to find it before the Lady does.

There seems to be a race on, though, because Steve catches glimpse of a familiar figure leaping across the night sky from building to building. Toad. Steve grins. He's been hoping to get a chance to repay some of Toad's attentions to him in person.

They find the humans before the mutants do, but the mutants are coming closer, so Steve lets two of the Iron Legion start shepherding the humans to safety, while Steve takes half of the Legion with him and goes upwards, trying to draw the mutant squad's attention.

He's successful, and Steve finds himself standing on one rooftop, his old team standing opposite him on a parallel rooftop.

Coulson's standing with Longshot, Blindfold and Toad, looking disgruntled. Steve's pleased. He guesses Coulson's been demoted because of Steve's escape.

"So," Coulson calls across, his eyes narrowing, "you're alive."

Steve grins back at him. "Yeah."

##


End file.
